Folic acid warning

31st October 2007

Scientists have warned that fortifying flour with folic acid to cut birth defects may lead to a range of health problems.

The move was approved earlier this year by the Food Standards Agency as a way to reduce defects such as spina bifida but a team from the Institute of Food Research in Norwich has shown the liver could easily become saturated by folic acid. Their findings, published in the British Journal of Nutrition warn this could lead to unmetabolised folic acid entering the blood, which could damage health.